How can B2B Marketers make best use of videos to achieve their marketing objectives? Learn more on why you should use video, the different options available, a step-by-step guide and also some real-world examples in this presentation

1. VIDEO CASE STUDY FOR B2B MARKETING
Santoso Thie & Asuthosh Nair

2. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. WHY PRODUCE A CASE STUDY
II. WHY VIDEO
III. DELIVERY
IV. WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD VIDEO CASE STUDY
V. SHOOT ONCE FOR MULTIPLE VIDEOS
VI. REAL WORD INSTANCES
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Video Case Study for B2B Marketing
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3. WHY PRODUCE A CASE STUDY
It's all about buying and selling, but when you sell something you can't simply push your product into the customer's face and
ask them to buy. Do you realize how much advertising is going on around us? With that much of advertising, the level of
openness is decreasing and the level of filtering is increasing.
Just think about it, 20 years ago when there was only one brand of toothpaste being advertised,
everyone went "wow" and used that product. Today, when a dozen toothpaste brands come with
claims of dentists' recommendations, nobody cares.
Customers are being very picky about what information deserves their attention.
When your customers clearly say, "No Touting!" - you had better not.
The marketing world, having realized this many years ago, gave rise to terms like
"permission marketing" and "thought leadership", where it is believed that you
have to influence the way your customers think and make decisions, and - with
their approval - lead them to buy your product. If you want to sell toothpaste, you
have to get them to agree that good teeth is very critical, and that choosing the
right toothpaste is a critical factor. What if they buy your competitor's toothpaste?
They are likely to not, because you have described "the right toothpaste" as
something that is pretty close to your product - even without mentioning it as so.
This is precisely where a case study helps - to lead your customer's thought
process.
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4. The motivation for a case study is simple - human nature finds it easier to believe in the
real and concrete. When there are witnesses and proofs, and when they can learn from
others' experience, the judgement becomes easier. When one doesn't have any experience
about something, one would use others' experience as consideration; and similar collective
experiences would be the most convincing.
A case study is the way to present the facts based on others'
experience - a report in one way and story-telling in another.
It has been around for a while, usually in the printed form. However, with recent
advancements in communication media, the video case study is a major enhancement to
the traditional way of doing things.
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5. WHY VIDEO
When we cannot have face-to-face communication, it is
better through video because we understand a lot of
things through facial expressions and body language. This
helps to build a strong connection between the messenger
and the audience. And this is one of the main reasons why
using video for case studies is a better way. When there
are so many things fighting for our attention, time is a
valuable commodity. To communicate more efficiently
and effectively would always have a positive effect in your
marketing efforts.
Besides the fact that a video touches most of our senses, it
also helps establish an emotional connection. With the
right execution, video can amuse, excite and inspire. Not
only can it make the audience understand and agree, they
could be led to believe strongly in and be moved by the
message. This is exactly the aim of marketing: not just to
inform, but also to move the customer to act in our favor.
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6. DELIVERY
DVD video is a familiar format to all. It is a fairly common practice to give away DVDs with brochures at seminars and
marketing events. But this is not necessarily the most efficient way to spread the message. As technology enhances the way we
communicate, you can now send video to an email inbox, have it hosted on a server and link to it, or (as is becoming
increasingly popular) embed it in your website. You can put it up on many popular video sharing sites like YouTube, or share it
on social media sites like Facebook. Your video can now travel without limits and you can start getting ready for a global
audience. Localization could be the next consideration so that people in China, East Europe or Africa can understand the
message clearly.
“
100,000,000
By the end of Q1 2009 there were 429.2 million broadband subscribers
worldwide. Over the 12 months to the end of Q1 2009, 63.5 million new
broadband subscribers were added worldwide, representing 14.8 per cent of
total subscribers.
World Broadband Statistics: Q1 2009, Fiona Vanier, June 2009, Point Topic Ltd
When we talk about digital video - compared to text or PDF files that you send via
email - it sounds demanding. But it isn't. Just like a boat cruising on a river - with
many things to carry - would it be too big for the stream of data? Of course it would
be bigger than text or audio, but we do have bigger rivers nowadays too.
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7. There is no better time to get a bigger ship, fully loaded with all the potential of digital media!
And you need not worry about the size of the "ship", as
with continuous improvements in digital media, video file
sizes are getting smaller with ever increasing quality.
Now that we have a great medium for delivering the
message and a captive audience, let us look at how to
make a great video that would effectively communicate
your message.
The number of users viewing video-sharing sites such as
YouTube has almost doubled since 2006. It is found that
62% of adult internet users have used video sharing sites,
and watching video online outranks many other online
activity such as social networking (46%), downloading
podcast (19%) or sharing updates (11%)
19% 14%
46%
62%
Video Social Network Podcast Twitter
Source: Pew Research Center's Internet
& American Life Project, April 2009
The comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review (comScore) confirms this with their finding that online
video viewing accounted for 12.5% of users total time spent on the Internet in November 2008,
up from 8.5% the previous year.
Source: http://bit.ly/1hSplS
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8. WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD VIDEO CASE STUDY
A case study should essentially be objective and sincere. The main message should come from customers, partners and other
stakeholders not in your company or marketing team. Well, at least the audience should have that impression. Positive
messages would come from those who benefited most from the deployment. Obviously you would want to push a positive
message, so pick a winning case or best practice. Find customers that have positive experience with the solution or product,
and ask for their support. Their words though ought not be scripted, and sounds better when uttered naturally. It should be
more ‘human’ and less technical, to cater to a diverse audience. It should focus more on their experience - how the product or
the service helps them - and not about how good the product is. Some companies make the mistake of having their own CEO,
Product Manager or Marketing Manager featuring in the video, raving about their super product. If possible, avoid involving
your own staff. Use them to provide information (such as technical specifications), and not to make any judgements, such as
“this is good!”.
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9. Keep references to the product subtle, and do not oversell
it. You should focus more on the benefit enjoyed or
problem solved by the customer. Like in the earlier
example: if you want to sell toothpaste, get your
customers to agree that a clean mouth is very critical and
that choosing the right toothpaste helps - instead of
saying how good your toothpaste is. You cannot
hypnotize them to buy the product, but you can expect to
direct the way they think about the situation and the
problem, and to agree with your solution.
That is not an easy job! And that's why it is critical to have
good planning, but stay flexible as much as you can.
Creativity is required most when flexibility is needed, e.g.,
when you have to change the story flow to fit the quotes
you get from the interviews. To understand the process
better, please allow me to share the process flow of video
case study production in our team.
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10. (I) Needs Analysis: Understand the background, understand the situation, and
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understand the objectives.
(II) Resources Analysis: Who will be involved in producing the video? Who will be
featured in the video? Most of the time this is when production costs can be gauged
as well.
(III) Pre-production Storyboarding & Production Planning: The production
team starts to plan the video flow. How it should begin, when the message should
kick in, how it should close. Who will be interviewed and about what, and who
should appear first and who follows. With a clearer idea of content and messaging,
the creative director would also plan for the music and overlay (B-roll) shots, the
editing style and the overall look and feel of the video. At the end of this process,
the creative brief and interview questions would be distributed to relevant people.
(IV) Production: Lights, Camera, Action! This is when the director should be most
engaged, as no one would like a re-shoot. The interviews are best done as if they
are a natural conversation, relaxed but confident - and not as a scripted question-and-
answer session. The interviewee looks slightly off-camera as if talking to
somebody seated next to it. As much as the interviewer should stick to the planned
interview flow (with prepared questions), he or she should be flexible and decisive,
to pick up a chance to build up another flow based on the response. He should be
intelligent and creative enough to ask unprepared questions if there is chance of a
good story build up, without applying too much pressure on the interviewee.
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11. (V) Post-production storyboarding and Video Editing: A detailed storyboard is built using the interview transcript. It
does not always have to be exactly like the planned storyboard prior to filming. Some good quotes might surface, and
some facts or interesting point of view might emerge that was not considered previously. If they can be used to build a
better case study, so be it - as long as the team sticks to the objectives of the production. The creative juices of the video
production team should be in full flow during this process too. Cut, retouch, colour grading, effects, music and sounds are
all essential ingredients. How much footage should be used, and how long should the final video be? There is no common
standard for this, but a common best practice is:
• 10 - 15 seconds of pre-roll (or some call it bumper)
• 40 - 60 seconds of introduction (where you have the problems or situation defined)
• 100 - 140 seconds of key messages (the core that has to convince the viewer)
• 30 - 50 seconds of closing (summary or call to action)
Three to five minutes would be a good duration, and this would also be how long people would watch a video online
before they get distracted or bored. If you have plenty for their plate, then split them into smaller plates. Have a series
with each video focusing on specific topics. That way you would also have better penetration as your audience will
have the flexibility with their points of interest.
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12. SHOOT ONCE FOR MULTIPLE VIDEOS
Obviously you would have spent some effort and resources in making the video. Your
audience will appreciate this too, it will have a different impact from simply reading
a case study and watching it come to life. Since time and money has gone into its
making, you might as well grab the full benefits of it. We started this whitepaper with
marketing as the aim of a video case study, but it does not end with that. You can use
it for management training, market study or even documenting a success story.
Optimize the production so that the footage can be used for other purposes. For
example if you arrange a question list for an interview, slip in some other questions
that produce some great quotes, that you could use in other marketing initiatives.
Slip in some technical questions and expect the engineer you interview to give a good
analysis of the situation. Use it for executive presentations material, and re-edit it for
training purposes.
When it comes to return on investment, your organization would require numbers
and statistics. We can measure how many times the video has been watched, how
long it was watched, at what point the user stopped watching, and even the most-watched
portion of the video (if they are given the ability to jump to certain points).
We can also have questionnaires at the end of the video to garner audience
impression. Some viewer information can be retained, such as location or system
configurations, and sales leads can be generated using such data.
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13. REAL WORD INSTANCES OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VIDEO CASE STUDIES:
A market leader in the enterprise space, Cisco wanted to bolster their awareness as
a Small and Medium Business-friendly technology vendor as well. They
encouraged their partners to bring forward solutions designed for SMEs and bring
them to the front line of small businesses around the world. The first few success
stories in each region were documented as video case studies, and featured on
their campaign main site. As more and more success stories emerge, they keep
updating the site with the latest case studies, covering various businesses and
regions. When small business owners watch these videos, they are convinced by
the message - Cisco is the perfect solution for small business.
Check out cisco.com/smb
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14. IBM is building on a fact everyone agrees on, that today the business
environment is challenging on many fronts and companies need
dynamic infrastructure to be successful. They need to push the idea
that IBM has the solutions and services that help customers meet
their objectives in the current business atmosphere. Again, it's a
space on the main website (http://www.ibm.com/us/en/) linking to the
campaign site (http://bit.ly/3mjiPE) with video case studies featured on
the main page. Within 3 minutes, they deliver what their customers'
challenges were and how the success story evolved.
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15. Although most of Adobe's products are meant for designers or multimedia
programmers, they know they must see beyond these people. They have to
convince the decision makers from manufacturing, healthcare, education, and
even government. They do have customers from this field, and they have nice
stories to tell - indeed they have plenty of "video testimonials" and "success
stories" for each of their products, nicely served at the product sites. For
example, you can check the stories about Adobe Flash here: http://bit.ly/29AfVa
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16. Many more example abound. In fact almost all successful companies have their "customer stories" on video besides the usual
PDF files or web sites. And the trend is moving along with the growth of social media - you can easily find video case studies on
blogs, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Try a search on YouTube about your services or solutions with the additional keywords of
"customer story" or "customer testimonial" or "success story", and check if your competitor is there! What would be more
interesting is how many times it's been viewed. Hopefully, their video case study is not that well executed, in which case you
can do something about it because you have read about what makes a good video case study.
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17. www.b2bento.com
B2B marketing requires a different approach from conventional B2C marketing. In fact the B2B marketing
space is evolving continuously, accommodating developments in the social media space, among others.
B2Bento blog serves to capture the essence of this evolution. From the latest developments, reviews, tools
and other cool stuff, to our take on what’s happening from an Asian perspective – B2Bento curates what’s
out there into a neatly presented, healthy mix of stuff you can consume with minimal fuss.
GETIT COMMS
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We are a team of consultants who see marketing programs, campaigns and projects through from
conception and planning to execution and final delivery. We provide innovative marketing & communication
solutions for Hi-Tech & Telco companies using interactive digital media (IDM) and social media. We
understand the nuts-and-bolts of our client products & service offerings and know how to best present
these to the intended audience. Established in 1997 we have more than a decade of experience in delivering
results to major corporations such as Cisco Systems, HP, IDC, IBM, Singtel, Datacraft, Arbor Networks, CMP
Asia and CNET Asia.
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